


Captured

by E_Jones



Category: My Hero Academia, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Aizawa Shouta | Eraserhead Loves Cats, Aizawa Shouta | Eraserhead-centric, Asui Tsuyu is a Good Friend, BAMF Aizawa Shouta | Eraserhead, BAMF Yamada Hizashi | Present Mic, Canon-Typical Violence, Hurt Aizawa Shouta | Eraserhead, Kidnapped Aizawa Shouta | Eraserhead, Protective Aizawa Shouta | Eraserhead, Protective Class 1-A (My Hero Academia), Protective Yamada Hizashi | Present Mic, Supportive Class 1-A (My Hero Academia), Torture, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-21
Updated: 2020-10-09
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:41:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 16,834
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26029624
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/E_Jones/pseuds/E_Jones
Summary: Set after the arrest of Overhaul, The league of villains capture Aizawa to make erasure bullets.  Now, the heroes must race to save their sensei before the new bullets are made or they lose a hero forever.I suck at summaries...Just read it.
Comments: 57
Kudos: 212
Collections: Aizawa Centric Fic Archive





	1. Trouble

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Find me on tumblr @1blackstar2

Contrary to popular belief, pro-hero Aizawa Shouta`s room was not black , grey or some unseen shade of white. It was painted a nice salmon pink and it was cozy. Aizawa dreamt of his room, his comfortable bed and even the sofa that he had slept on so many times. He wished he was home.But he wasn`t home, he didn`t even know where he was. The last thing he remembered was being in the hospital after the raid, getting his body checked for leftover chemicals from Chronostasis`s quirk and then nothing. So, he was drugged, he thought. But by whom? The question answered itself when he heard the door opening and a raspy, menacing voice came, 

“Comfortable? Eraserhead”.  
“Shigaraki”  
“You are getting weak, should have woken up like an hour ago, you almost made me worry there.”  
“I am truly touched , would take it easy if all these notorious villains gave up, you know.” This time, he let himself smirk.  
“That is not gonna last, Eraser.”  
“You are underestimating my friends” , The hero retorted.  
“You are underestimating mine.”

Aizawa knew Shigaraki was right, the league of villains had evaded capture long enough and if they went as far as kidnapping a pro-hero, they must have been extra careful. The thought of what waited for him sent a shudder down his spine. He couldn`t think of a reason of his capture. Maybe you were just a soft target. No, he can`t let that voice take over right now. He needed to assess his situation first. Okay, for starters he was blindfolded, expected but unpleasant none the less, his hands were cuffed together behind his back which were chained to the wall behind him and his feet were bound too, talk about overkill. Although, he knew that if they had been loose, he would have some maneuvers in store for his captors. An honorable mention would be a splitting headache that didn`t feel like it was subsiding anytime soon. 

The door creaked as it opened.

“You know I was against this, I told them to simply throw some water at your face, every 2 days or so but here we are.”  
“Your generosity has been noticed, Dabi.”  
Dabi crouched down to Aizawa`s eye level and sighed as if Aizawa was making him do this.

“Now then, I`ll keep a glass of water near your face and you`ll drink like a good hero, if you don`t,”  
On cue, his hand came on fire and it neared Aizawa`s left cheek, close enough for him to start struggling back. The threat clear and present, Aizawa drank the water and in other circumstances, would have thanked the person for the water felt cool and pleasant. Without another sound, he left the room, lock clicking behind him. 

The next day at UA,

Hizashi was used to the questions about his and Shouta`s friendship, only those close to them understood how far the seemingly incompatible duo went. He was told his friend`s injuries weren`t much and he doubted that even if they were, he would say so. He was interrupted by his train of thought when he was called to Principal Nezu`s office. With a heavy sigh, he wondered whose house`s window broke this time because of his “unbridled use of power” this time. He let himself in and took a seat opposite the principal`s like a child waiting for a scolding, he looked bored.  
“Ah PresentMic! , its good to see you” The unexpected comment threw Hizashi off balance and he spoke with considerable less enthusiasm , 

“I do have a enigmatic presence , is everything alright? Do I need to write an apology?”  
“Tell me , after the raid, have you seen Aizawa?” 

For a minute, he thought he hadn`t heard right, there was something very wrong about this.

“Sho? I received his text saying it was successful and he just had a scratch. I didn`t believe him but I didn`t think much of it. Was he badly injured?  
“On the contrary, Aizawa was hit by a quirk that has the power to slow down movement, before anything could happen, help arrived but I received a mail yesterday night from him requesting absence , claiming that he still felt the effects and did not trust himself to be in class. Ofcourse, all his paid leaves are unused so I couldn`t refuse on any grounds.”

Hizashi understood Nezu`s concern, that did not sound like Shouta at all, for him to cancel class for personal health sounded absurd but then maybe it was serious, we are dealing with a lot of unknown variables here.

“What do you need me to do, sir?”  
“Pay him a visit, ensure that everything is as it is supposed to be.”

Reading in between the lines was admittedly not his strength but he very well understood Nezu`s choice of words. Nothing seemed wrong and there`s a good chance, it isn`t but for the things that didn`t add up, he needed to inspect inconspicuously. He left the office with a solemn nod and a pit in his stomach. 

After school, 

“C`mon Sho! Its meeeeee………..Your best pal….Open up!”

He was shifting from foot to foot now, he`s been waiting for 5 mins now. As if on cue, the door opened up and Aizawa peered out, looking at him with dull and uninterested eyes, some relief entered Hizashi`s body, and he felt stupid worrying so much.

“Is it something important, I want to go back to sleep.”

He did not need an invitation, Mic pushed back the frail man and directly went into the kitchen. Everything, he noted, was in the same place , untouched, almost as of nobody lived there….nothing new there he thought and began making coffee for himself.

“How you feeling now Sho? I heard you were a bit lightheaded there”  
“It`s nothing a little sleep wouldn`t fix, plus those kids have been through a lot , some rest would do them good too.”  
“That is true, they are resilient though you have to admit.”  
“They have a long way to go but I guess so.”

Nezu was getting old and paranoid, he thought and made him doubt too. If anything, he was happy for his friend.

“I`ll leave you to it then, you look like you haven`t slept in ages, Shouta.”

As he opened the door to leave, Yamada yelped and jumped back, startled by a black cat that seemed to be waiting for an opportunity to come inside. He watched keenly as the cat began circling Aizawa but curiously, ran away after a moment, as if disappointed.

“Ahh little buggers, always mess up the house, should I get it out for you?”  
“No, I`ll manage myself or it may leave itself once bored.”  
Yamada`s whole body stiffened and felt like throwing up but he did not let it show. He lingered at the door for a moment then closed it.

“I almost forgot! He saw the imposter`s eyes go wide as he realized what Mic was doing.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA”

The impostor with great reflexes, managed to hide behind the sofa and covered his ears. When he got up again, there was white gluey substance around him and standing in between was a young girl.

“You did not do your homework WELL” Yamada all but spit the last word.

He was fuming with anger now . He was a bit apologetic looking at the crashed glass everywhere around the house but his target had finally fallen unconscious.  
With trembling hands , he took out his phone which was a bit cracked now and dialed Nezu`s number. It was received in 2 rings.

“You were right” He managed to speak , after gaining the upper hand in the fight, he felt utterly defeated.  
“Shouta`s in trouble.”


	2. Friends and Foes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would love your feedback.

Shigaraki did not understand how his master managed leadership. The constant worry of his teammates doing something rash, protecting them , all while staying a step ahead from the heroes. It was exhausting and troublesome but he was growing into it. Still, it took a lot of planning, and he had nearly cancelled the plan to capture Eraserhead, even though being an underground hero, the hero was well-reputed and his search would be on a good scale. But ultimately, their goal was bigger. The Yakuza was out of business, thanks to the bravado of pros and they had succeeded in getting one of their doctors involved in making bullets to defect to them. It was amazing how easily the greatest of leaders fail to sense the resentment in those under them. It didn`t take an expert to see that Overhaul was smart and capable but the aura of invincibility he wore , made him blind to his inevitable doom until the very last. He chuckled, after all , not everybody has great masters like he did.

“Shigaraki Tomura!”  
“Yes, Kurogiri?   
“Himiko`s clone has been discovered”  
“That was bound to happen, although I thought it would take them more time. It doesn`t change anything. Is everything ready at the lab?”  
“Yes, everything has been done. Shall I retrieve the prisoner?”  
“If you will, Thank you.”

25? No, at least 28 hours have passed since he woke up here. The blood had dried on his hands where he had incessantly pulled at his restraints. The inability to see had made him more anxious than he would have liked. As a pro-hero, he had faced such situations before but he had managed to either call backup or get out himself in a few hours because he always had the element of surprise, his rare quirk always gave him an edge and without it he felt helpless, he did not like being helpless.

“Good morning, Mr. Aizawa”  
Even from the blindfold, Kurogiri could feel the man`s glare on him.  
“Know that your defiance would be utterly futile and it would be wiser to store it now.”

Aizawa did not miss the mocking expression of his last words but he said nothing. Sending Kurogiri was clever, he had to admit, without erasing his quirk, he couldn`t even touch him, much less fight. He didn`t move when the chain that connected his hands to the wall was detached and his legs uncuffed. The blindfold was a real annoyance but he could sense the layout of the way if he was going to be moved. So he did not offer resistance when he was to another room, The journey was surprisingly long, he did not remember the League of villains owning any such property, also, it smelled of something familiar, bleach, the building was sterile like a hospital, so a lab then. Aizawa didn`t know what to be anxious about, the fact that he was at the mercy of villains in a lab or that he found a hospital`s environment familiar.

That`s when it clicked. It must be an abandoned (apparently not) Shie hassaikai lab. He shelved this information for later, if this was similar to the last one, he could picture a layout.

“Making exit plans? Aizawa?”

He was too in his head to notice another pair of footsteps join in. But he hadn`t heard this voice before. This wasn`t a villain. He could not think of that as better or worse but with his luck, probably worse. He chose not to reply.

They stopped. Lock clicked. He was pushed inside. Door close.

“Now Mr. Aizawa, if you will kindly cooperate with Mr. Adrik here, any unpleasantness can be avoided.”  
“Why am I here, Kurogiri? Your boss is gone, you don`t have any connections and having me here just speeds up your capture. Then why?”  
“Your gift, Mr. Aizawa, its priceless , if used correctly, of course.” He said the statement as if it was something obvious, that didn`t need to be put into words.

Before Shouta could formulate his words, he felt a hand coming towards him, he ducked instinctively, and put as much distance as he could between him and his assailant, counting his steps, 1,2,3,4,5 then he charged, 1, 2,3 , he launched a kick in the direction where he could hear breathing. His leg connected with something and he smirked hearing a satisfying thud as somebody hit the wall. He quickly shrugged off the handcuffs, he had broken his thumb earlier to get them loose, to take off his blindfold before Kurogiri could make a move, but he knew as soon as his eyes opened that it was too late, dark purple mist surrounded him and as soon as it cleared, he was in a small make-shift office with Shigaraki looking at him with an annoyed look. He readied himself for a fight but in a blink of a moment, he was against the wall with Shigaraki`s hand around his neck, he activated his quirk but that did nothing to stop his wind pipe from getting crushed. He couldn`t keep his eyes open but he had no choice, he could feel Shigaraki`s sly grin and wanted to punch it off him. His eyes began to water, his vision began to blur. Too close, his body went rigid and his mind took him back to USJ, and the days after, the constant headache and inability to move without pain. He could feel his neck crumble as he dropped to the ground, panting. 

“I knew you would be trouble, but that was impressive. Did you feel it? The dread that comes when faced with death?” He fingered the affected neck which made Aizawa grit his teeth in pain.  
“Let that be a reminder that you can`t win, you can`t escape and we won`t kill you, not now anyways. So, do yourself a favor, Eraser and give up!”  
Move. He commanded his body to move but it didn`t budge, his body had already given up to the pain, and he found himself welcoming the darkness that came over him then.

Hitoshi Shinso was admittedly, not the brightest but he wasn`t dumb either. When his sensei didn`t show for their extra lessons on Thursday, he did not panic, he knew his sensei overworked himself. He did not panic the 2nd day either but when the absence persisted , he grew uneasy. When he found out that his sensei had taken official leave to recover, he became fully worried. That wasn`t like his sensei at all. And that is how he ended up in front of Aizawa sensei`s house. He had come here 2 times before. Once, when he had injured his hand badly during training and he tried to shrug it off so that he doesn`t have to go to the hospital and answer his parents but sensei had taken him home and silently bandaged the injury while lecturing him on the importance of his security. The second time was when he was cornered in the school and bullied so bad, he almost gave up on the training, when he told this to his sensei, he just nodded and invited Shinso to his house , made him tea and sat beside him as he slowly recounted the incident , not realizing when he had started to cry. 

The nostalgia evaporated as suddenly as it had come and he found himself being suspiciously stared at by a officer in blue who was sitting in front of the house. That wasn`t right. He smiled innocently.  
“Sir?”  
“What? Are you lost, kid?  
To be fair, Shinso had hesitated for a second before activating his quirk but in the end he was right. When the bewildered officer opened the door to let Shinso in, he did not expect yellow tape behind the sofa and the usual articles marked as evidence. He ran as fast as his legs could carry him, partly because the officer was realizing what has happened, but mostly because it gave him something to direct his mind to. “Please be okay, Sensei!” 

When Aizawa came to , he immediately regretted opening his eyes, the lights were too bright and everything hurt. He wanted to rub his eyes badly but his hands were cuffed to either sides of the chair he was restrained to, same with the legs. He could just about make out the appearance of one person, wearing a white coat. The Russian, Adrik, his name was Adrik.

“You must know that whatever happens from now, I take no pleasure in it. I am just here for science.”  
The grin that spread on his face said otherwise. Before Shouta could think of a remark, he saw as Adrik`s hands turn into a blade type material whose length he adjusted to resemble short, sharp knives.

“Let us begin. Would you need something to bite on?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OC   
> Name - Adrik  
> Origin - Russia  
> Quirk- His hands transform into very sharp steel blades whose length can extend upto 5 feet and he can use them as precisely as his own fingers.
> 
> I have watched the anime and not a manga reader so there won`t be any spoilers, the shinso part was what I had already read in a lot of fanfic and added my own.


	3. Secrets

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is kind of a slow chapter but the action starts soon.
> 
> The fanart included in this scene has been done by 
> 
> @tonguetiedraven  
> Find her on Tumblr for more of her amazing work

“This is what we know so far” Tsukauchi took a deep breath, the words felt wrong in his mouth.

“ 3 days ago, approximately between 15:00 hours and 18:00 hours, pro-hero Eraserhead or whom we know as U.A. teacher Shouta Aizawa was captured by the League of villains. Upon investigation, it has been found that he was last visibly confirmed at the hospital after the raid. But he wasn`t seen coming out. Security footage shows nothing suspicious which leads us to believe that someone inside the hospital was involved. Background checks of everyone on duty at that time are being thoroughly checked as we speak. We have been working day and night but with the recent raid on the facility has depleted a lot of man-power and the loss of Sir Nighteye is still heavy. This is a turbulent time and people’s faith in heroes and UA isn’t what it used to be. I am afraid that any sudden action may cause unforeseen complications.”

“So, you are saying that we sit back and pretend like our friend isn’t at the mercy of crazy villains.” Everyone present flinched at Present Mic`s cold and monotone voice.  
Tsukauchi swallowed hard before speaking, “We assume that the league wouldn`t go this far without a purpose, they must need Mr. Aizawa for something.”

What the line implicated hung heavy in the room.  
“I think it best for the students and media to not be aware of the situation, so as to avoid panic.” Nezu finally broke the silence.  
“What about 1-A? They are not gonna be satisfied by any lousy explaination.” Hizashi pointed out with a tinge of pride.  
“Our official cover story is that Eraserhead has been sent undercover for a secret mission, whose timing could not have been predicted.”  
“Thank You Heroes”

Hizashi waited for his best friend to walk in the door and explain how he defeated the league and needs to sleep now but he did not appear, instead he saw Tsukauchi coming towards him and he looked for a way to leave and found none.  
“Just a minute, Present Mic”

“If you are attached to your ears, I strongly advice you not to ask how I am doing.”  
“That`s not it but I`ll remember that. The man posted in front of Eraserhead`s house reported something strange.”  
“Why are you telling only me this?”  
“Well because he said that a purple haired boy dropped by and weirdly, the officer found himself allowing the kid inside the house, The kid ran away in tears. I have instructed the officer not to speak of it again but I think we both understand what this means.”

Yamada`s voice trembled , “Hitoshi Shinso”. Shouta`s so gonna kill him. He was so absorbed in his anger that he neglected the fact that Shinso was close to Aizawa, very close and that he was tutoring the boy. How could he have not thought that the boy would investigate on his own. He put his head in his hands and sighed.  
“Thank you Tsukauchi, I`ll handle it. Let`s keep it between us.”  
“Ofcourse. We are gonna get him back, Mic”  
“We have to.”

Aizawa lost count of the times, he was sliced, injected or cut by Adrik. Each time , he could see from his face that it wasn`t working, the bullets weren`t working. He thought of the time, he was in Chronostatis`s control and what he said. Overhaul had been interested in him, with his arrest, he did not consider the possibility that his quirk could be abused as well. Hell, he never considered the possibility that he was a person of interest, he knew all the top heroes, heard all their stories of being targeted but never thought of himself like that. He was used to keep his head down and work. The pain was excruciating but not unbearable and he has succeeded in staying conscious until now. He knew he could at least delay the pain by using his quirk on Adrik but he needed his eyes, being blindfolded was worse. He wondered how UA was reacting, what story they told the children and if they would believe it. He smiled proudly at that.  
“Wanna share the joke, Eraserhead?”

“I knew you weren`t bright Shigaraki but this was simply dumb. You will not have any bullets but the city`s police and heroes on your doorstep very soon. You have lost and this time, your precious sensei isn`t coming to save you.”

“Your faith in your comrades is unwavering as ever but think Eraser, this isn`t the same as with the violent kid. The world doesn`t know of your absence , there is no pressure and do you think you mean much to them? You think after the raid, they are gonna spend the same resources for YOU? The symbol isn`t coming this time either. As for the bullets, before Eri, Overhaul planned the bullets with your quirk but as he grew frenzy, he began searching for something more permanent but that wasn`t the only problem, quirks need to be activated, even if they are a part of your gene, if not activated at the time, they can`t be made into bullets. We thought you would use your quirk atleast once, to stop him but I shoudn’t have underestimated you , Eraser but that is gonna change.

“Bakugo was right, you do talk a lot of nonsense. I can guarantee you and your little band, I would die rather then help you. And there`s no pain that you would inflict that would change that.”  
Shigaraki first smiled then began to clap slowly, “Heroic , so heroic Aizawa, just what I expected of you! Now hold onto that heroism of yours”.  
Aizawa was first confused, then amused but outright terror overcame him when Shigaraki re-appeared in the room, but he wasn`t alone, he was dragging with him a scared 10 year old.  
“Meet young Haruki, you must have seen him, as he does live in the house next to yours, Aizawa. Did you know that he’s quirkless but wants to become an doctor to save lives. Isn’t that sweet? It would be so terrible if he was to die a young death.

Shigaraki’s hand flew towards the boy’s head and he kept it there, patting his hair slowly. He smiled winningly at Aizawa`s red eyes and motioned to Adrek to do his work.

This time, Aizawa screamed from the knife digging in his flesh, he had no energy left to resist it. He, finally saw the boy being moved away and then gladly, closed his eyes.  
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________-

“Aizawa sensei is in danger, and you want me to pretend like nothing`s happened?”  
Yamada knew it wasn`t going to be easy, Aizawa had chosen the boy and he could see the stubbornness he possessed but this wasn`t going anywhere. The boy was right, hell even he wanted to break all protocol and spend all his time finding Aizawa but he also knew very well what his duties as a sensei were.  
“You broke the rules when you used your power on a police officer, had it been a citizen, I would have you expelled.” He sighed and spoke softly , “I want him back too, I have lost a friend once and I`ll be damned if I lose another but he would never forgive me if something happened to you. So you need to trust me, Shinso, I need your faith right now. Consider what Shouta would say.”  
Shinso paused, he knew Hizashi sensei was right. “I am sorry for using my powers like that, I wasn`t thinking clearly.”  
“Shouta will be the judge of that. For now, go back to your room and do not speak of this again. If there`s any progress , I`ll personally inform you.  
“Yes sensei”

Later that night

He knows this is a bad idea, he knows he should turn back but he doesn’t. He continues to follow Mirio and Nejire . When he opens the door to the isolated building, he found Present mic, Ms Joke, Principal Nezu, Vlad King, All Might and Midnight already there.

“I am glad you came Tamaki , Nejire, and Mirio, you didn’t have to.” Principal Nezu’s gaze rested on Mirio, the kid was still smiling, still cheerful.  
“How couldn’t we? It’s Aizawa sensei, he may act all tough but he is the greatest teacher. We all have learned a lot from him. I don’t think we would have been this good without him.” Nejire’s energy seemed to spread throughout the room.”  
“We wish to help as much as we can.” Tamaki commented softly.

With a deep breath, Hizashi took the lead, “We are here because we all wish to find Eraserhead on our own despite the orders. It’s understandable if you do not wish to do this and it will not be seen as a betrayal at all.”

Nobody moved.

“Right then, let’s get this started, onto you Principal Nezu”  
“Although Overhaul has been captures, his methods still exist . As Tamaki told us, he found one of his subordinates , Chronostatis over Shouta, wanting to capture him. We can only assume that Overhaul was interested in Aizawa’s quirk until he found Eri. It only makes sense that the league of villains wish to continue the production of bullets but with the erasure quirk. Good news is that it means that they won’t kill him. Bad news is that they may already have some of the bullets ready. I believe that he may still be in one of the Shie Hassakai facilities either off the chart or abandoned.”

“How are we gonna find out, we don’t have the resources?”  
“For that Vlad King, I can help.”

Tsukauchi came out from the corner and stood beside Nezu, nodding at the old man.

Nejire spoke this time , “But aren’t you the one who instructed everybody not to do anything?”

“That’s correct and I still stand by that as a Detective . However, Mr. Aizawa has been a constant support over the years and I can’t sit back. I am practically going against all of my ideals here . I cannot help as a police officer but I can as a friend. I have all the reports and investigations from the raid which can come in handy.”

“Thank you Naomasa, I knew you wouldn’t deny” All Might looked at his friend with a smile.

“Then its settled, we meet here after hours and go through all the locations. Aizawa’s fate depends on us now.”  
“Yes sir!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love the big 3 . There's no way I won't include them.
> 
> OC
> 
> Name - Haruki Amani  
> Quirk - None


	4. Haruki Tano

His eyes burned. After the experiments, he could barely keep them open, that is , if he was conscious by the end of it. He remembered Mic joking that Kan hates him because Aizawa doesn`t have blood in him but coffee, well only if he could see him now, he was bandaged now and then, to keep the blood loss from getting fatal but mostly his hands were still covered with it, fresh and dried both. He still kept counting the hours and calculating the distance from every time he was taken to the lab so that he still has the sense that he’ll escape, and that he is not weak but waiting. He had taken into account loss of energy and wounds when planning his escape but he hadn’t thought of Haruki. Now that he thinks, he had seen the boy around and he knew he must be terrified and alone and he wished more than anything to talk to him. He reached for the eyedrops kept within the reach of chains on his legs. As far as cells go, it wasn’t bad although it was intolerably white, with only red spots of blood on the floor and walls. Only restraints were the cuffs around his legs connected to a chain that allowed movement from his bed, if you could call a thin mattress that, to the small bathroom in the corner. He had been in worse conditions as an underground hero but he always had the advantage of being underestimated, he worked well in the shadows but now that he was the main prisoner, it was hard. Plus the experiments went on for hours, he had tried to be difficult but he soon understood that each time , he didn’t cooperate, the boy wasn’t given a meal. It was as simple and efficient system as that and he had no means to fight against that. 

“Am I interrupting your slumber, Mr. Aizawa?”  
“Yes, Kurogiri, it is very important I sleep after and before torture sessions. You know the way out.”  
For what its worth, Aizawa did take extra pleasure in conversing with Kurogiri but he actually was exhausted.  
“Then I will keep this short. Mr. Adrik has complained that you are losing consciousness way too early, the production hasn’t been as much as we would like.”  
On this, Shouta did open his eyes and he stared at Kurogiri with cold, expressionless eyes, “Then you may tell Mr. Adrik that his lab rat is not a manic like him and doesn’t show psychotic behavior.”  
“I expected that, while Shigaraki Tomura’s incentive is quite effective, I believe that mutual understanding is a far better way. I’ll make you a deal, you put in an effort, go plus ultra if you will and in return, I will fulfill something you desire.”  
“I want the boy to be shifted in my cell.” He mentally applauded Kurogiri not to betray his emotions at that.  
“I understand, very well….That could be arranged. I would advice you to keep your end of the bargain for the boy’s sake that is.”

As he left, Aizawa let out a breath, that took a strange turn, he thought. He expected more threats or physical pain but he hadn’t thought that, now that he was calmer, why had he asked for the boy? What good would that do? But in that moment, it was the only thing he wanted. He wondered what else he could have gotten and had he lost an opportunity but it was done now. He dreaded having to push himself harder, it was difficult as it was. That with the lack of sleep, not that he didn’t crave it but as soon as he slept, he saw vivid images of his students being hit by the bullets, of them screaming and crying for him while he was the source of their misery. He once saw Hizashi in them, that was when he had given up sleeping.

As soon as he stepped out of the hideout, he knew somebody was tailing him. Years of being in an underground mafia organization had improved his instincts and had rarely failed him. He could sense the person was good as he only had a feeling, not even a shadow moved in his vision. He had heard of the random attacks on previous Shie Hassakai members but he was amazed how they had found him. Still on guard, he headed towards the main road, crossing the final alley when he noticed a woman standing there, he studied her, young, bright green hair, innocent face, harmless, but he knew better. He had taken down heroes twice her size, he activated his quirk, enlarging his fists . She turned towards him, tilted her head slightly and began to laugh. He was caught off guard by that, soon, he felt his lips part and his laughter coming forward, he could hear himself laughing but he couldn’t understand why. He heard her laughing even harder as she said to him, “Aren’t you Akinari Matsui, former member of the Shie Hassakai”. He heard her and he had a retort but no sound except of laughter came out. He had seen her punch coming and he knew he had tried to block it, but everything felt dizzy. All he felt was pain in his body where he was being kicked and his lungs gasping for breath as one outburst followed another.

“Make it stop, I’ll answer everything, just make it stop.”  
Air filled his lungs as silence fell. He was on his knees by now, panting.  
“Now, Mr. Akinari, make good on your word and tell us Who was involved in the scientific process of making those bullets?”  
“I left Shie Hassakai shortly after Chisaki took over, I know nothing after that.”  
“But the technology was underway by then, it was a team of 12 but we only arrested 11. Who is the last one?”  
“I don’t know about them, they were very secretive and kept holed up in their labs”  
Ms Joke took a deep breath and laughed softly, “Maybe you need some incentive”  
He felt his lungs ache again and he pleaded, “Wait wait, there was someone.”  
“Now that was easy.”  
“There was this Russian, I heard he killed off the rats, I mean test subjects , so fast that he was taken off the team after which he made such a scene, injuring 4 people severely and killing one. He was thrown out after that .”  
“His name. Now.”  
“We don’t know his real name , he was simply called Adrik.”  
“That was really easy, wasn’t it now? Tsukauchi? He’s all yours”

Tsukauchi came out of the corner, gun at ready, wearing a mask. He had seen the hero before in battles but not in this way, he was a just a bit unnerved by it.  
“That was pretty impressive, Ms Joke.”  
But she wasn’t smiling anymore, “This is the first lead we have gotten in 3 days, but its still thin, could be just another dead end.”  
“In my experience, no lead is ever entirely useless and sometimes the most improbable ones are true.”  
Her face changed, a smile came over it and just as cheerful as ever she spoke, “Of course, plus I want to see Aizawa’s face when he hears this. Let’s go back.”

As he sat on the small bed given to him, Haruki wondered if his father had noticed by then that he was missing. Probably not, given how rarely he noticed his presence anyways. Almost 2 weeks after he was brought here, they brought him in front of the homeless man. Well, he knew he wasn’t homeless as he lived just next door but his father said that he must have killed the actual owner and now sells drugs. That’s why he looks like that. He understood that they were hurting him and somehow he was involved too but he hadn’t figured out how. It must be the evil thing inside him, he thought that was hurting the man. He wished he could tell him that he didn’t mean it but he didn’t see him after that. Until now. The purple smoke man had told him that he was to share the room with the homeless man. He was scared, the man looked dangerous but he trusted the purple man, it was wrong, he told himself , again and again, he was taken from his home, they were bad guys. But Mr. Purple man has also shown him the most kindness he has received and so in some way, he trusted him.  
Then he noticed the homeless man saying something. “What?” he asked stupidly.  
“I asked if they hurt you”  
“No”  
Shouta noticed burn marks on his hand and a few cuts on his wrists, but they looked old. He was horrified by that , how long had the boy been here. It also didn’t escape his notice how calm he was around Kurogiri.  
“When did they bring you here?”  
Haruki didn’t trust the man at all, he felt as if he was looking through him and his eyes were scary. He didn’t say anything further.  
Shouta slowly got up from the bed and went as near the boy as he could, at that he saw the boy flinch and stopped there, crouching down to his level, he continued, “Let’s make a deal, you answer my question and I’ll answer yours, okay?”  
Haruki nodded slowly.  
“How long have you been here?”  
“About 2 weeks before I saw you.”  
“Do you sell drugs?”  
“No, I don’t” Aizawa did not expect that but it wasn’t the first time it had happened either.  
“Do they treat you properly?”  
“Yes”  
“Why are your ankles chained to the wall?”  
“Because I want to go home and they don’t want me to”  
“But why”  
“My question first, Do you miss home?”  
“No, but why are they hurting you. Did you do something bad?”  
Aizawa sighed , “They want to use my power for evil and they caught you so that I would let them.”

That puzzled Haruki , that cant’t be right. Purple man said he was here because he was important and they needed him although he wouldn’t say how.  
“Look kid, it’ll be alright, I’ll keep you safe, I have friends who are looking for me, they’ll find us soon and then you can go home.”  
He wants me to go home, but I don’t want to. He kept that to himself.  
“What’s your name?”  
“Aizawa”  
“Haruki Tano”  
“You’ll be okay, Haruki”  
For now, Haruki believed that.

“You were absolutely correct, principal Nezu, the technology was being developed earlier and one of the scientists had a fall out.” Tsukauchi reported.  
“Woahh!! You deduced all that by knowing that one scientist was missing? Wow, is that because of tea you keep drinking like an addict?”

“Calm down, Ms Hado. It was simple. From the notes discovered from the raid, there were atleast 12 distinct handwritings, meaning 12 scientists but the more recent notes only indicate 11, meaning that they had a fallout and there is one person out there who knows how to make bullets apart from the 11 scientists and Overhaul. And the league must have contacted him. Good Job Tsukauchi and Emi.” Nezu continued sipping his tea.

Hizashi had enough …”And how does that get us closer to Shouta?”  
“That’s the tricky part, from here on, it’s gonna be pure luck. It is safe to assume that someone from the inside had helped in kidnapping Aizawa from the hospital. I am fairly sure that Adrik is that person. If we can find out from the hospital footage someone that matches his description, near Aizawa, then we can get his address and possibly some clue.”

This time Vlad spoke up , “So we don’t have anything concrete and our plan is to hope that this guy leads us somewhere.”  
“Yes”  
“Well, I volunteer to go through the footage! I trust Principal Nezu” Mirio’s voice, as always, boomed.

“Tamaki , Nejire will continue going through property documents of Shie Hassakai . Vlad, Joke and I will keep watch on the streets and Tsukauchi, you help Mirio.”

Everyone nodded in agreement. Doing something, anything, Yamada knew was keeping them sane.  
They didn’t realize then how close everything was from crashing down.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is not much info about Ms Joke's quirk, so I used my imagination.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Find me on tumblr - @1blackstar2

“Are you absolutely sure about this? Shigaraki Tomura”  
Shigaraki looked at his friend, his loyal companion and heaved a sigh. “My sensei did not nurture me to earn profits or to be safe, he had envisioned a society that sees through the futility of the distinction between heroes and villains. They’ll see today what desperation feels like, today will remind those heroes what being vulnerable felt like.”  
“Very well then. I’ll ensure Mr. Aizawa’s cooperation.”

Hero Public safety commission  
Location: Unknown  
Time : 9:00 hours

“Issue#105558 : Capture of Pro-hero Eraserhead”

“A hero in enemy’s hands is never a easy situation to detangle. Mr. Aizawa Shouta , better known as pro-hero Eraserhead was a reputed teacher and a good friend. However, his unique quirk is tricky in enemy’s hands . With the recent raid at the Shie Hassakai facility and Kamino Ward incident, we have to be considerate on how we spend our resources. While we would like to deny it, Eraserhead’s queer behavior in the past cannot guarantee that he has not turned against us. If the loss of young Mirio Togata’s quirk is any lesson, we cannot take the situation of ‘quirk-erasing’ bullets lightly. We cannot endanger any hero to that fate. Hence, it is only logical that we take a step back, take our victory and learn from what we have lost. At this moment, we need to maintain our and UA’s reputation. If the word of capture of a teacher gets out, panic will ensue which cannot be tolerated. We , at all costs, cannot let people’s trust in heroes to break. Any questions?”

“Yes, Principal Nezu?”  
“It was a little unclear. Are you proposing that we leave a fellow teacher, a friend at the mercy of the enemy, known for unspeakable crimes.?”  
“That is not what we meant. But yes , for the moment, I advise you to focus on your priorities.”  
“Understood”

End of session

Outside the building , Nezu was ushered into the UA-mandated car.   
“How did it go?” HIzashi knew the question was obsolete looking at the principal’s solemn face.  
“As expected, I was kindly advised to focus on my priorities.”  
“They are abandoning Shouta then.”  
“Yes”  
“And what about us?”  
“We will, as advised , focus on our priorities, Present Mic. Any news from the rogue team?”  
“Tamaki called, he may be onto something.”  
“Bright kid, If only he valued his own abilities. Let us go then.”  
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“Say, Mr. Aizawa, what is the maximum time limit , you can use your erasure for”

Shouta registered Adrik then, he noticed the wonder and curiosity as he talked to Aizawa. In other circumstances, that does not include his skin being cut in, carved into all while he has to strain his eyes to activate his quirk. Each session lasted 4 hours, he was given a 10 min break after each hour and some of his wounds were stitched in the last 15 minutes. Adrik wasn’t a good hand and the stitches were improper and sloppy and often tore easily. And he thought Recovery girl’s methods were bad. His eyes started bleeding after 3 hours. He shuddered, Adrik was still waiting for a response.

“Depends on the situation, and the stakes of course.”   
Aizawa understood by then that there was no point in silence. Adrik does get answers anyways. Plus, it helps in diverting his mind from the pain.  
“I was told that you managed to use your quirk even after breaking 7 bones in different places , internal bleeding plus several wounds. I almost didn’t believe it.”  
“I would give you an autograph but my hands are currently tied.”  
Adrik’s laugh then sounded almost genuine. “You are a very interesting person, Eraserhead.”

A voice that wasn’t there before replied, “He piqued the interest of Tomura Shigaraki and the entire Yakuza. His choice of occupation baffles me.”  
Aizawa didn’t raise his head, he didn’t feel like he could, “Are you here to see my co-operation, Kurogiri?”  
“No, I have no doubts there, there is however a matter you are to be notified of.”  
Aizawa knew from the tone that something was about to happen. Not today, he thought, not when I plan to escape.

Time : 5:00 hours  
Tamaki glanced up again to see that everybody was waiting for him to speak. Nobody is gonna make fun of you, you are not being judged or tested, stop fidgeting. He kept telling that to himself until Nejire stomped on his foot.  
“Ow, that really hurt, fine. So, as suspected, going through the footage, Mirio saw Aizawa-sensei following a Russian man into one of the rooms. He came out alone. I, um thought, I mean ,I guess that Aizawa sensei went for a check-up and was drugged by Mr. Adrik here, after which he was taken on a stretcher that left the room an hour later, completely covered.”

“There was such a rush that day in the hospital and then the news of League of villains confused further. Your theory makes the most sense.”

Tamaki went red, “It wasn’t me, Mirio looked through the footage and then I just took that information to speculate further. Really, it wasn’t hard………”  
“Shut up Amajiki! You are brilliant, tell them the main part.”

“Right of course. Detective Tsukauchi then went to the hospital to retrieve information and got his cell number. When we pulled the records of that day, the phone switched off at one area. So…”

“SOO,” Nejire threw an apologetic smile at Tamaki , “We then compared the area with known properties of Yakuza and also abandoned buildings. One building matches the criterion. It used to be a safe house of one of the original members of Shie Hassakai, it was then converted into a drug lab but then when he was kicked out of the organization, the building was shut down. Now can anybody guess who was the member??? No? His name was Igor Lebedev, did you get it yet? The grandfather of Adrik Lebedev aka our kidnapper, isn’t that just mindblowing?”

“That is some exemplary work, all of you , but it’s not enough to convince the council, they will not approve a raid and even if they did, we cannot barge in without confirming the place. What if the phone was switched off on purpose on a wrong location to throw us off the trail.? It’s too risky.”

Hizashi was gonna argue further when all the heros’ phones chimed up at the same time. Curiously, he pulled it out, “It was a text message from Tsukauchi, a link. He opened it. He went pale, he found it suddenly hard to breathe. He griped the nearest wall to steady himself. “Sho”

The screen showed a white room with 3 occupants. On the side, was a table with some equipment set up beside which a man stood, his face covered. The camera was focused on his friend, tied to a chair, he looked like hell. Hizashi saw the swelling around his eyes that came when he didn’t sleep for a stretch of days. His hands were brutally scarred and bloodied. There was a black tape on his mouth but no blindfold. His eyes looked downwards and seemed neutral. But Hizashi could see from the way his fingers twitched and he took a deep breath every once in a while that he was scared. Shouta is never scared, he thought with a shudder. There was a red dot at the corner of the screen.

It was live

Shigaraki came into view, “Those unaware, let me introduce to Mr. Aizawa Shouta, teacher at UA and of course the underground hero, Eraserhead. He has been our guest for the past week, providing us with quirk-erasing bullets.” The camera went to Adrik holding blue bullets. Shigaraki smirked, “Do you see that, they can’t protect themselves, they can’t even protect themselves. You think you are safe in your little homes because there are heroes protecting you? All they have is secrets and lies and all they do is promise peace and propagate it but all they really protect is themselves. They couldn’t stop us , We can tip-toe in any one of your house at night and take what we want, you think your partner is safe at work? You think your child is safe at school? Think again. What do you feel now? Are you scared or are you angry? Do you feel betrayed? You should because this society has been weak for a long time now and its time for some change.

Cut

The phone slipped from Hizashi’s fingers, the entire room mirrored his emotions.  
“Oh my God, Shouta"

Aizawa did not flinch when the tape was finally removed from his mouth. He did not show relief when Dabi let go of Haruki and the boy went back to his cell. He felt numb. Everybody saw that, he thought, again and again, his students , 1-A, Shinsou, Hizashi , everybody. He noticed Shigaraki looking at him amusedly.

“You revealed my identity” He hated how pathetic he sounded, “I can’t be an underground hero if my identity is known. Why? Why Shigaraki? I did what you wanted, why did you do that?”  
Shigaraki closed the distance between them, staring into Aizawa’s eyes.  
“Because I wanted to and nobody can stop me.”

For the first time since he was taken, Aizawa was afraid.

#Weak UA  
#Save Eraserhead  
#Are we safe?  
#Can heroes protect us?

“Reporting from outside UA, it has just been confirmed that one week ago, one of the teachers was taken. No further comments are being made but that is to be expected. The live stream that ended 2 hours ago has shaken every individual . Questions are arising that if heroes are the victims, how are we safe? There has been talk of an amendment in gun laws and the necessity of having hero licenses. Do we not have the right to protect ourselves in times when the symbol of hope, All Might has fallen? Is the image of peace just a facade? Let us replay the video streamed to…….”  
“Turn it off, Uraraka”

Bakugo left the room, muttering to himself. Most were frozen.  
“We are all dead” came Mineta’s wails which were shut by Jiro.  
Everybody thought of the right thing to say, the correct thing to do but the only movement came from Bakugo’s blasts outside.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“We can still make this right. The commission will help us now, the public demands Aizawa-sensei’s return , if we give them the location, we can save him.” Mirio spoke to one blank face after another.

“Young Togata, that is not how it works. This is worse. The people demand blood, they see Aizawa as victim and the commission will do just that. If we give them the location, then it will be an annihilation not a rescue. Such missions are always taken when the victim’s death is expected They will go in guns at ready and they will not consider the victim. If Sir Nighteye had been alive, there was a chance but when it comes to their reputaion, the brass will make Aizawa a martyr without hesitation.”

Midnight looked up, “Don’t you understand? We need to give the location, if we act fast, we’ll get the erasure bullets as well as a chance to save Aizawa. It is our duty.”

“It is also our duty to Aizawa-sensei to rescue him. He has always protected us, we will not abandon him.” Tamaki’s voice was loud and clear. Nejire and Mirio stood beside him. “The big 3 will do everything we can to save sensei even if they expel us.”  
“I am with them. Nemuri, its Sho” Hizashi said  
.  
“Kan? Principal Nezu? Emi? Any objections?”  
“No”  
“We need time for things to settle, right now all eyes are gonna be on UA”  
“3 days. Let’s wait for 3 days. Then we rescue Aizawa-sensei.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't hate me


	6. Lies

(Right After the live stream)

“NO, Face me Shigaraki…Look at me you coward.” The only thing keeping Aizawa from lunging at the villain was his restraints. Kurogiri swiftly placed himself in front of Aizawa and Shigaraki , all while Tomura looked amused. Purple smoke started surrounding the hero but it disappeared as red eyes glared at him. There was a sharp cry as Aizawa shut his eyes in pain and slumped back on the chair, unconscious.

“Take him back to his cell and make sure he is actually eating, Kurogiri, can’t have him dying on us.”

Aizawa heard Shigaraki’s footsteps receding , he felt his restraints taken off, he waited. Eyes closed, he let himself be half- carried, half-dragged back to his cell by Kurogiri. Good , he thought, now wait for the right moment. Kurogiri was about to shut the door when he was suddenly kicked at by the now fully conscious hero. He activated his quirk only to have it erased. Aizawa pulled Kurogiri in and pinned him to the ground. With all his strength, Aizawa impaled him with the small knife he had managed to hide on him and sneak into his cell, a few days ago. Heaving, he felt Kurogiri going limp under him. 

“Haruki? Come here and help me wrap him in the sheets. Its going to be okay, I’ll get us out of here. Listen to me, you need to stay calm and follow me, okay?.”  
Hesitantly, Haruki helped Aizawa wrap Kurogiri in the sheet and put him in the corner, “Are you sure about this? You look bad.”

“I have been worse, plus you are my priority right now. Now, even if they get me again, you keep running, do not wait for me. I’ll be okay but if they get both of us, it’s over. Go straight to UA and tell them you were being kept at a abandoned Shie Hassakai facility and the doctor at the hospital is the kidnapper, tell them his name, Adrik. You’ll remember that right?”  
“I think so”  
“Okay come on”

Shouta took a deep breath before breaking into a run, his stitches on the right hand had torn and were bleeding. There was a throbbing in his left leg but he didn’t dare slow down. Okay you can do this. The lab is in the interior, so the opposite way must be to the entrance. There aren’t many members here only Kurogiri, Shigaraki, Dabi and Adrik. One down, 3 to go. He didn’t think he would be able to defeat them but he could stall enough to get Haruki out. The corridor came to an end and he started to hear footsteps behind them. Shit they are fast. He saw a storage type room on his side and went in, shutting the gate, he shallowed his breath , gave Haruki a reassurance smile and listened. He heard Shigaraki’s yell and smiled to himself. Hurried, light steps neared the room and he went still. It was Dabi, he quickly threw open the room and glanced in, then hurried off , sending random sparks of fire as he went. After a count of a minute, Aizawa crept out of the room and took the nearest stairs and started climbing , Haruki on his toes. He narrowly missed as blue light came towards him from the top.

“Think you are the only one smart, hero?” Fire went out of his hands and Dabi threw a punch at Shouta which he dodged neatly and swept Dabi off his feet.  
“I know so”

“Haruki get down” Aizawa pulled the boy down as sharp steel cables went over their heads. “Now run, find the exit. GO”

He turned to the scientist who looked more menacing than Aizawa had seen him. Erasing his quirk, he used the railing as support to kick him with both legs. The stitches opened up in the left hand as well but adrenaline pumped through him. He shut his eyes, which were now bleeding and heard Dabi groan. Now. He ducked just in time and the fire and steel met to create a shockwave that threw both of them back. Seeing the chance, he searched for the id card on Adrik and found it in his coat pocket. He may actually get away from here. The thought rejuvenated him and he ran past Dabi . He was right, it was only a two storey building and he could see the night sky from one of the building. He found Haruki crouched on the floor, hugging his knees, muttering to himself.

“Hey I am here, there’s the gate, c’mon let’s go.”  
He pulled the boy’s hand and ran towards the door. He heard Shigaraki shouting behind him but he is so close, he’ll make it. At that moment, he felt Haruki’s hand slipping from his. He looked back to see tears in the boy’s cheek, only air where his hands should be. That’s when he felt a hand materialize at his neck and needle pricking him. The last thing he felt was confusion, the last thing he saw was hands approaching him, the last thing he heard was “I am so sorry” and the last thing Eraserhead said before darkness took him was “Why”?

Haruki remembered doing this, gaining trust, then betraying people at the last moment. He had done this many times. But feeling this way after was new, the way the homeless man looked at him, not with anger or contempt but his face showed hurt, pity even. He had never been pitied in his life. He had even never been looked twice at , and he wasn’t used to the feeling. He watched impassively as the others hauled the man up and the purple man used his magic to transport them back to his cell. He saw them reattach all his chains , trying to take up no space at all. 

“Can I leave now? I won’t be able to spy on him anymore” The purple man took notice of him then.  
“You did a good job, had it not been for you, he would have escaped.” Haruki did not know what to make of that so he said nothing.  
“What are you going to do to him?”   
“Nothing you need to be concerned with, go back to your room for now”  
Wordlessly, he left, sparing one last look at the battered, bruised, bloodied man on the floor who had appointed himself his savior.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“We understand you feel betrayed, but we couldn’t risk the word getting out” Hizashi spoke calmly but under the cold scrutiny of 1-A , he felt more uneasy than he had for days.  
“To protect whom? Aizawa-sensei or yourselves?” Momo’s question felt like a slap.  
“I understand you are angry but there was no right way to do this. Plus given your history, we couldn’t be sure you all would not attempt something reckless.”   
“It’s reckless if we do it, but responsible if adults constantly lie and hide things?” This time it was Tsui  
“I am sorry kids, I don’t know what to tell you” He wished he could tell them that he had found his friend, that there were others who shared their worry , that in 2 days, he’ll get their sensei back but he couldn’t, he had no doubt that they would do everything in their power to help them, he wouldn’t blame them but he wouldn’t allow it either.  
Sho, please hang on, just a little longer, these kids need you, I need you. He could hear soft sobs and he left the room before he gave in to them

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

What went wrong? What didn’t he consider? He remembered running towards the door, remembered feeling hopeful then it happened. Haruki! Oh My god, is the boy okay? Did they do something to him? How long had he remained unconscious? He felt his vision coming back to him and it hurt, everything hurt. He wanted to rub his eyes but there were chains holding him back. And he thought he was getting used to the mattress. His leg throbbed and his hands felt raw as if his skin refused to heal again. He realized he desperately needed water. Thankfully, he saw a bottle right in front of him. He reached towards it , only to remember that he wouldn’t be able to drink it. He would have laughed at the cruelty had it not taken energy he didn’t possess. Pathetic he thought. Wait that wasn’t his thought. Someone was talking to him, his senses seem to have mutinied against him and they all blurred together. Drugs he thought , again, he added.

“How much did you give him, Adrik?”  
“About 50ml, should have worn off by now, I guess he is weaker than I had anticipated.”  
Shouta finally found his voice  
“Water” He finally croaked out  
After 2 minutes, he found cool liquid touching his lips and he took huge gulps, afraid that it would disappear but it didn’t and his throat felt safe enough to form words  
“Haruki, is he okay?”  
“Are you sure it was only 50ml? He seemed to have lost it.” Adrik just shrugged in response.  
“I am well aware of what happened and I also know that you can’t possibly actually care about him, so is he okay?”  
“I believe, Mr. Aizawa, that you should be more convinced about your own well-being. You have to appreciate Shigarakai Tomura’s foresight , he acknowledged that we did not have much experience with underground heroes and you would be too slippery for us, hence, he played with your weakness. Your fierce want to protect kids, he saw it the day, you readily gave up your life to protect them and he wasn’t wrong.”  
“I do not have the patience for your ramblings, I want to see Haruki.”  
“You misunderstand the situation, you see, now that the ruse is over, we had to resort to more unpleasant means for your co-operation.”

On cue, a woman in her early 20’s walked in, she was smiling pleasantly at Aizawa just like a predator and crouched down near him. Instinctively, he shuffled back.  
“You look like the type who boast they are invulnerable. It’ll be fun to break you.”  
“You look like the type that speak a lot. I hate them.”  
Her face turned sour and she turned towards Kurogiri, “When can I start?”  
“Anytime, Ms Estella.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Name - Haruki Sukami  
> Quirk - His hands can de-materialize and re-materialize wherever he wanted, as long as he could see the location, even through closed doors.


	7. Trust

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry for the delay but things were pretty crazy. I can't tell you how many times I rewrote this chapter because I couldn't decide some plot points. But here you go.

Shouta watched the young woman before him. She had a confidence air around her like someone who has always gotten what they wanted. He did not want to know the reason for that but if the chains holding his hands over his head were any indication, he does not get a say. She turned towards him and silently blindfolded him. He waited for it. He knew it would. Then it came.  
Searing pain shot through his left hand and he twisted in his chains, he hadn’t felt anything on his arm to cause it yet it was there, unrelenting, throughout the arm. 

“That was the pain of your hand being crushed under a heavy object, what would you like to experience next?”   
“This is your quirk? Inflicting pain? I thought it would be something interesting.”  
As soon as the pain subsided in his arm, his leg began to burn. No it wasn’t burning, not really but he could feel his flesh on fire. This time he screamed. A hand clenched around his jaw, “you ready to play nice now? Because there are about 20 different types of pain I have left and we haven’t even began with the combinations.”  
He spoke in between pants, “I am not going anywhere, are you?”  
Estella’s face cracked and she gave him a sharp slap. She wiped off the blood of her own nose and took a deep breath. “Give me the quirk enhancer, Kurogiri”  
“Are you sure about that?”  
“NOW”

Kurogiri , handed over the drug reluctantly and hurried off the room. He went straight to the tiny office on the far right and went in unannounced.  
“What is it Kurogiri?” Shigaraki looked annoyed.  
“I do not believe calling Ms Estella was the right call. We don’t have the time required to break the hero, i.e if we can. Toga is still demanding to allow her to “Paint him red” is how she put it. Spinner still refuses to partake in anything that is harming a true hero. We cannot progress like this.”  
“Then you suggest we kill him? All this for nothing?”  
“We have 20 bullets ready and Compress tells me that there is a lot of money offered to deliver Mr. Aizawa to certain groups.”  
“Really? Why?”  
“There are a lot of major trafficking rings he took down, heavy deals he blew, a lot of people are angry.”  
Tomura chuckled, “He really is cool. Let her try today, if not, tell Compress and Dabi to find the highest bidder. Do not let Toga near him, letting her loose on him would surely kill him.”  
“Understood, Tomura Shigaraki”

Haruki heard the men talk and felt nauseated. He could hear screams coming from down the hall. What was he doing? He saw his father’s face telling him that he is useless, that he had to repent, even if he hated it, he had to repent for killing his own mother. Tears trickled down his face as he saw another face, haggard and bloody but kind, smiling at him, asking if he is okay, the face of the homeless man who was in so much pain because of him. He couldn’t save her but he can save him. He can truly repent.  
Pushing back his tears, he ran towards the direction of the screams. He stopped by the lab on the way and grabbed a syringe. He peered into the room and saw the woman laughing as blood poured from her one ear. The man lay crumpled on the ground, writhing in pain. Gulping, he activated his quirk and his hands dissolved, reappearing beside the woman’s , she barely registered it before he emptied the injection in her neck. She looked at Haruki, aghast and fell down.   
The lack of activity caused the homeless man to look up, he looked like a ghost, Haruki thought. His hands cut beyond recognition, his body thinner than it was , his right leg had a minor burn. He was breathing heavily, trying to make sense of what was happening. Haruki slowly took off the blindfold, the man flinched at the touch, he blinked a few times before noticing Haruki, his face went from relief to confusion to stoic in a matter of seconds. He looked back and forth from the woman to him, taking in the situation. 

“I know I betrayed you but this is not a trick. You were trying to save me, now it’s my turn.”  
Aizawa looked at the boy before him, this could be another ruse by them to get him to use his quirk, it made more sense, but he couldn’t help see the fear and kindness in the boy’s eyes, the same kindness that he saw in each of his students’.

“You have no reason to trust me…”   
“I trust you” Aizawa said simply and watched the surprise on the boy’s face. “But how are we gonna escape from this?” He motioned to the chains on his hands. 

Haruki’s eyes shone as he took out a rusted silver object and began to work on the lock of his chains. In 5 mins, the lock gave way and Aizawa fell forward from the sudden lack of support.   
Aizawa stood on his feet with Haruki’s help and looked curiously at the boy.  
“My mom taught me how to do that after I once handcuffed myself by mistake.”  
Aizawa wondered what kind of childhood he had. No he was still a child. He knew the boy had gone through something traumatic but so young, he thought, he’s so young.  
“We have to get out of here fast, she could wake up anytime and Kurogiri will be coming back. Do you know where the exit is?” The pity could wait, first he had to get away from here.  
“Yes, it’s not a very big building and only, the hand man, the purple man and steel man is here.”  
Aizawa chuckled at that, he was so young. He was also slightly surprised that most of the league isn’t here, especially the one with the compress quirk, that would make things easier. But Dabi was here.  
“What about Dabi, um the fire man, no that’s not right?”

“The scary man? With weird eye bags?” Haruki asked innocently.  
“Yes, him”  
“He left last night , hasn’t come back. We should go now”

Without another word, the duo ran out of the room, following the same path they had before, Aizawa slightly limping, every bruise and wound on his body making itself known as he put one foot after another.

“Going somewhere?”  
“Aizawa crouched down , as a long blade nearly missed his head.”  
This should be easy, he thought and with a deep breath, activated his quirk. The blade still came forward, this time slashing his leg just under the knee. He froze. Why couldn’t he use his quirk? He tried again but as soon as he tried, his mind flashed images of the very blades digging in his flesh. His quirk had made bullets that could be used to hurt any hero, kids he was teaching could be hit. Hizashi, Kayama, they could die in battle because of his quirk. And he couldn’t. No matter how much he willed himself, he couldn’t get over these images to use his quirk. Not using his quirk was his resistance, his defiance for so long that his mind was betraying him now. 

Adrik walked towards the pair and kicked Aizawa in the stomach, causing him to gasp for air. 

“I told you how much this would progress science. I thought you understood. Do you even understand how many lives could be saved if we could master the technology to make quirks into medicines? How can you people be so selfish? Is being a hero only beating up thugs?”

“LEAVE HIM ALONE” Adrik violently backhanded the boy causing him to fall back.  
“NOO, Haruki” Aizawa got a hold of himself and sweeped Adrik’s feet from under him, sending him crashing, then subsequently punched him. He dragged himself towards the boy and shielded his body with his own.  
“Do what you want with me. He is just a kid”

But Adrik looked furious, his eyes cruel , his finger turned into a blade, which shot forward, aiming towards Aizawa’s chest. Aizawa closed his eyes and braced for the impact. He might die but he won’t let Haruki die. 

When he opened his eyes, he saw blood pooling at his chest, a blade sticking in it.

But he felt no pain.

Why didn’t he feel anything? 

The blood wasn’t his.

The blood that had blocked the blade reformed and flew back to its owner. Aizawa looked up in disbelief.

“Vlad?”

Pro-hero Vlad King turned towards the assailant. His eyes menacing and his face angry.  
"So you like blood, huh?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay! Heroes are here!! Don't worry , I'll pick them up from where we left too.


	8. Plus tetra

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so so sorry, I had school and tests and couldn't catch a break but I'll update regularly now.  
> You guys are awesome, thank you for so much support
> 
> This one is kinda small because I had to catch up our heroes. But the story goes full speed now.

( 1 hour earlier)  
[Outside an abandoned building]

Nejire tried, she really did but finally she turned towards All Might and burst out, “But sensei, how are you gonna fight?”  
Tamaki shook his head in disappointment. All Might turned towards the young girl and turning into his muscle form went , “Heroes don’t rely just on (turning back to normal and 3 coughs later) power”. He stood there in a bulletproof vest, with cargo pants containing a variety of devices used by the police, tasers, smoke bombs, tear gas etc, same as Mirio and Tsukauchi. He set the guns he was holding to stun and winked at her. 

Tsukauchi cleared his throat to divert everyone’s attention, “Let’s go over this again. Everybody will stay in pairs of two. Vlad King and Ms Joke , Present mic and Midnight, Suneater and Nejirechan and finally All Might and me . Mirio will stay on comms from here and stay guard at the exit point” He takes out an old blueprint for everyone to see.  
“The building is not very big ,only 2 storeys and there are 2 ways in and out so we can’t rely on a sneak strategy. I believe that Eraserhead must be being held on the second floor. Team D will focus on locating him, Team A and B will clear the path while Team C will cover us from behind. Engage as minimum as possible. Our objective is mainly rescue not fight. He gave a look to Mic who returned it with an innocent smile that didn’t feel innocent at all. There are a lot of unknown variables here so please be careful, we cannot afford to lose.”

“We won’t”  
“Right. Mission Protect Catzawa is a go. Wait what?” Emi chuckled, “We are never letting Hizashi name missions again.” Hizashi made an indignant noise and scowled at Emi.

The group headed towards the main building . There was an electronic lock, Tsukauchi pulled open the box and made quick work of the circuitry, the door opening immediately.  
The corridor they found themselves in was surprisingly clean and deserted. As Nejirechan and Suneater climbed up the stairs, they were thrown back as a long sword went past them.

“How the hell did you guys get here?” Spinner stood in a defensive position, looking at the heroes with disgust in his eyes, his sword in hand. He ducked the crab hand that came at him and landed a kick to the hero. He was thrown back by a strong swirl of energy. 

Mic couldn’t see what held the others as a heat wave missed his face by 2 inches. He faced the eye-bagged man, but he knew he couldn’t use his quirk with all the others in range. He continued to close the distance between him and Dabi, hoping for a physical attack, he would have succeeded , had a purple mist not created a barrier there. He jumped back. The mist went past him and enveloped All might and Tsukauchi, when it cleared, only air where they stood. 

This was one of the very rare moments, that Hizashi Yamada regretted having a quirk that he couldn’t completely use against his opponents. But this was the time of action not complaint.

As if hearing his inner monologue, he watched as Midnight took Dabi in a chokehold and released her poison through her hand near his nose, knocking him out before he could try to burn her.  
Midnight ducked barely in time as a knife flew past her, but was hit by the kick that followed it.

“I hate purple, let’s make you red.” The girlish giggle was not only disturbing but loud, too loud for one person. Counting, he found 2 Dabi, one unconscious, one fighting and 2 toga, both menacing.  
Twice, he thought, followed by Crap.

“Vlad, go find him, we’ll clear a path”  
“Nejirechan and Suneater , engage Kurogiri, maintain a distance”  
“Everybody safety on now!”  
In a quick flash of moment, headphones and masks were equipped by the heroes.  
A loud , high pitched scream sent half the villains flying back while shattering all the windows in the path.

“Overkill much?” Midnight shouted at Mic who just looked smug.  
Ms Joke joined the duo, “You know that’s going to attract whoever is in the building.”  
“Good, that’ll keep them away from Sho”. Just hold on Sho, he added to himself.

Vlad king raced up the stairs to find his friend in bad shape, crouched over some boy and a blade shooting towards them. He didn’t think twice.  
This man isn’t in the league, he looked Russian, this man must be Adrik, he thought, taking back his blood.  
“So you like blood?”  
Frustated, Adrik turned all his fingers into blades and shot towards the hero in front of him. All the blades struck him, drawing blood at various points, then why didn’t the hero look in pain? He was smiling as if there was a joke that Adrik didn’t understand.  
Adrik saw in horror as the blood that painted his blades began to climb them and reach towards him, finally binding together and punching him.

Pro-hero Vlad king turned towards his friend, “Sho, go towards the back exit, you’ll find Mirio there. Can you find it?”  
“Yes. Vlad?”  
“Thank you”  
Vlad went towards Adrik who was getting back up. He saw Aizawa half run, half limp towards the exit and turned back to the man in his grasp. How many times had Vlad not been here to block the attacks, how many times had his friend screamed because of this man? He is going to pay for it.

They were here. His friends were here, he could save Haruki now. Aizawa knew he should be happier, but somehow, he didn’t feel anything but the weight of his body on his injured leg. Haruki looked at the older man’s face with concern but didn’t say anything.

“We were not done before, Eraser”  
Cold shiver went down Aizawa’s spine as he saw a furious looking Estella in front of him. She looked terrible, her face and hands were sweaty and her lips quivered while talking. Quirk enhancement drug.

Aizawa knew that without using his quirk, there wasn’t much he could do to defend himself, that didn’t stop him from standing in front of Haruki, protectively.

He did not get a warning as pain shot through his entire body. He felt all the bones in his body break at once. He did not scream. The pain shot up in intensity and this time Aizawa went down on his knees but kept staring defiantly at her. He could see her panting. 

“You don’t have control over your quirk” Aizawa did his best to not sound weak.  
“Shut UP!”  
This time both his hands felt went numb as if freezing  
“I am a teacher, I can see when people can’t control their quirk. Your nose was bleeding earlier because you strained yourself. Same is going to happen now.”  
“I don’t want to hear your garbage.”

Aizawa didn’t know how long he could keep this up, the intensity was decreasing but it was still too much. But he couldn’t pass out, not when his friends were fighting for him.  
Estella’s vision swam, she had never used her quirk to this extent, it was too much to keep up. She saw the pale man in front of him, enduring the pain that had brought people twice his size down. She felt consciousness slipping away from her, she thought about all the academies she was kicked out because no teacher wanted to train her quirk. Maybe, she wondered, if she had gotten a teacher like him, maybe she wouldn’t be here. Her body twitched violently and then went limp

Haruki could not believe his eyes as he saw the woman go down, the homeless man collapsing unconscious soon after. Had he imagined it or did he hear the words , “Plus tetra”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love to receive your feedbacks. If you are confused, how come all the memebers of the league come, I'll make it clear in the next chapter


	9. Rescue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As the titles goes, this is when finally it happens

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You guys are awesome, your comments and feedback just keeps me going.   
> Hope you guys like this one!

The first thing Tsukauchi noticed about the room was that it was unbearably white. A gray chair with metal cuffs was placed in the middle. The second thing that hit him was the strong coppery smell of blood, old blood, lots of it. It was visually confirmed by a stack of blood bags kept in one corner, by the look of it, it must have been taken out of refrigeration some 20 mins ago, to put it plainly, it was horrific. 

“This must be the lab where the bullets are made” commented All Might following his gaze, he hesitated before speaking, “Blood must be Eraser’s”  
Tsukauchi only nodded at him in response.  
“Something on your mind?”   
“If this is the lab, then the ready bullets must be stored nearby and if we destroy this lab, then I am pretty sure they won’t be able to make more bullets.”  
“Wouldn’t they have more stored somewhere else?”  
“It’s a possibility, sure but look at the amount of blood there is here and we know this facility isn’t that big, there’s a good chance, this is it. But why would Kurogiri send us here then?”  
“Didn’t you notice? He was in a hurry, he was being attacked and he probably hasn’t mapped the area properly till now. Plus, it looks like someone just left here recently, we are in luck.”

Both stopped mid-conversation on hearing faint footsteps and frustrated conversations nearing them, “Well you jinxed it now!” whispered Tsukachi giving the hero a look. They only had a few moments to spare for communicating basic plan before the door opened to reveal 3 people , their attire, attitude and air screaming that they are part of a shady organization, even without looking at the red shark tattoo on their left arms. 

With the element of surprise, two were shot down immediately while the third was handled by Tsukauchi in a matter of minutes.   
“Why is the Crimson shark gang here? Has the league started some sort of support program for gangs that lost their glory or something?”   
Tsukauchi took several deep breaths to steady his voice before replying, 

“A – that sounds traumatizing and B- the quirk- trafficking gang was taken down with the help of Eraserhead. This must be what's left of them.”  
“You don’t think that they are here for…” The former No.1 couldn’t bring himself to complete the sentence but he could see that Tsukauchi reached the same conclusion.  
“We should re-group with others soon, let’s finish this.”

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kurogiri warped himself in front of Shigaraki Tomura looking as composed as always, one couldn’t say that he had just fought two of the UA’s best students and barely managed to get away. He noticed the look of apprehension on Mao Zong, leader of Crimson Shark gang, but did not spare him a greeting.

“Shigaraki Tomura, we have a situation”  
“Then deal with it”  
“Tries so far haven’t been successful”  
“You mean to tell me the entire league of villains cannot handle one pro-hero?”  
“They are actually 4 and 2 students, a detective and All Might, I have teleported the last 2 to Adrik’s lab, he should have handled them, it was the only place I have frequented enough to warp someone”

“My men haven’t come back either who went to meet the doctor." The leader said, "Shigaraki Tomura, we can’t deal with that many pros, this was not what you promised me. I am leaving, you should run too. We need to survive not seem……………………”  
Rest of his words remained unsaid as his mouth crumbled to dust along with his head , the rest of his body collapsed on the ground.  
Having calmed down, Tomura turned towards his friend, “No one escapes alive. Locate Eraser, get him here, lets see those heroes fight with their friend’s life in the balance.”  
“What about you?”  
“I want to meet the former No.1 hero, I wonder, does he scream like we do?”

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------

“We could burn it”  
“How?”  
“It was just an idea”

Tsukauchi sighed, they weren’t getting anywhere like this. The bullets were nowhere to be found and they had no means of destroying the piles of D.N.A samples and blood bags.   
“We’ll just have to come back, I know its improbable but Eraserhead is the priority, we can’t forget that.”   
“You are right ofcourse, All Might, but the idea of such a weapon in the hands of that handsy maniac is just …” He inhaled sharply, “leaving is the only option here. Let’s go”

Walking towards the stairs, All Might tried not to think that if he had his quirk, it would have been a matter of seconds, he tried not to think how he could have swayed the council to search for his co-worker and friend, how Aizawa wouldn’t have had to go through so much pain if he wasn’t so pathetic, but he failed. Maybe that’s why he sensed a moment too late that a figure was approaching them.

“Tsukauchi duck!”

A hand just missed the detective’s head as he managed to crouch and roll away at the last moment.

“Are you still clinging to your moments of heroism?”

All Might knew the man standing before him was a S-rank villain but all he could see was the blood of his master. “Tenko”  
In the blink of an eye, All might found himself against the wall with Shigaraki’s hands around his neck, his eyes menacing, his voice furious, “My name is Tomura Shigaraki, they say you should know the name of the person who kills you, so remember it, hero”

The bullet disintegrated before it could hit its mark. “Do not interrupt me!” Shigaraki growled as he lunged at Tsukauchi who had a determined look on his face and a gun in his hands. “NOO” screamed All Might as he desperately tried to catch the villain but couldn’t keep up with his speed.  
The hand reached its destination but the target was swiftly carried away by a lone red feather. Following which, was a brilliant wave of fire that took Shigaraki by surprise.   
“Endeavour?”  
The number one hero tilted his head, “Hawks?”  
“Its done” came a voice from behind All Might, he sounded both smug and bored at the same time.  
“Shigaraki Tomura, S-rank villain, I am arresting you for pissing off a lot of people”

Shigaraki was shaking violently, his hands scraping his neck like nails on a rough surface, “Why do you interrupt me??”  
Endeavour boosted his legs to dodge the attack and sent a fiery punch in the direction but Tomura was a blue streak in the air and when Endeavour jumped back on instinct, he noticed the metal bracer on his left hander, had become thinner than a moment ago. Grunting, he charged forward using his repulsors, bringing his hands together, at the same when two red feathers swiftly slashed both the villain’s ankles, slowing his moments  
“Heat laser” he shouted ejecting a fine, powerful beam of heat ray that hit Shigaraki in his abdomen, a low cry of pain escaping his lips.  
“Nobody asked you to participate” The No.1 hero said vehemently  
A cheery, challenging tone came, “I wouldn’t be so sure, old man”  
“What you--------Hawks, behind you!”

Purple mist enveloped the number 2 hero, who reappeared involuntarily 7 feet up in the air, the corridor too narrow for his wings to properly unfold, he dropped on the ground with a sickening thump.   
“So it was his feathers that took away Eraserhead from my grasp, I see, very amusing quirk, I did not think anyone could operate faster than my mist”  
An array of flame attacks were consumed by the mist as Endeavour and All Might tried futilely to reach Hawks. His flames seemed to get hotter as he grew more restless.  
Endeavour did not see the hand coming towards him from the smoke but before it could connect, a clamshell husk appeared in front of him, that completely decayed the next second.  
A spiral wave of energy flew towards Shigaraki, that sent him reeling back.  
“Sorry we are late, Suneater and I ran into the compress guy, that was not fun, right?”  
Standing beside Endeavour, Suneater quickly withdrew his hand and moved towards the corner, “That was horrifying. My shell decayed in like one moment, I am good at nothing.”

Present Mic bent near the fallen bird and hauled him up, “You, my friend, probably have the worst concussion ever” He neared his face to his, “Tell me, is Shouta okay? Did you get him out?”  
Emi pulled the voice hero back sharply, “Vlad said he’ll get him to the hospital, he’ll be fine, stop this, the guy is in no condition!”  
Mic redirected his fury towards the blue-haired villain in the middle of it all. “TELL ME” his voice loud and angry, causing everyone to cover their ears, “WHO’s GOING TO PROTECT YOU FROM ME?”  
“MIC!!” Midnight shouted through the noise, “Calm down, you are affecting everyone”  
Mic looked at the pained faces of both UA students with their hands on their ear and the no.1 hero gasping and as if awaken from a daze took a step back in alarm.  
Still reeling from the assault, the heroes were too late to notice the purple smoke gathering around the villain.   
“Wait” shouted Endeavour but in the next moment, both the villains had vanished in thin air.

He punched the nearby wall in anger, “It’s all your fault! Don’t you have an ounce of self control?”  
Midnight stepped between the men, “This is not the time for you two to quarrel like children. We still need to destroy the bullets and get the captured members to the authorities.”  
“Actually, we found all the bullet making equipment and materials in that lab, we managed to destroy the bullets but not the..”  
“Blood” Mic completed the sentence, “Sho’s blood and D.N.A”  
“This lab you say? Endeavour?” Mic turned towards the flame hero with a grin.  
Nodding, the fire hero made a blanket of fire over his ears, “Get Hawks to a hospital and get away from here”

Shattering sounds of screams and shaking explosions could be heard for some time even from outside the building.

Maybe, Toshinori thought, he had done enough, maybe he could rely on others to continue the fight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We are almost at the end. The last chapter is going to be Eraser-centric. I missed him in this one but there was no way that man could do anything in the condition I put him in. :-)  
>  Did the rescue feel satisfactory? It will be explained how Endeavour and Hawks got here in the next chapter. I'll try my best to update soon!!


	10. End

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is it, hope you guys like it.

October 10th, 2020

“Thanks to the bravery of a team of heroes namely, Present Mic, Midnight, Vlad King, Endeavour and Hawks, pro-hero Eraserhead has been successfully rescued. The quirk-erasing bullets and the apparatus needed for their production both was lost in the fire that followed the fight and burned down the building. Thankfully, no one was hurt and I am proud to say that we have apprehended 5 villains, who called themselves the league of villains, leaving only their leader and one more member. We apologize for keeping the public in dark and in fear but confidentiality was key in the success of this mission. Any questions?

“Sir, what is the present condition of Eraserhead?”

“There is no permanent damage and with your thoughts and prayers, I am sure he’ll be on his feet in no time.”

“A whole team of pro-heroes including No.1 and No.2 heroes couldn’t catch the villain Shigaraki and Kurogiri. How do you expect the public to have faith in the heroes?”

“You and me standing here, cannot judge the actions that happened with lives in the balance. Our heroes are here for our protection and the last I checked everyone is safe. I admit that this is the second time we have failed to bring in Shigaraki Tomura and Kurogiri but it does not mean we have given up. The police force is tirelessly determining their location.

That’s all. Thank you all for coming.

When the crowd cleared, Hizashi turned towards his friend, “They made it sound so nice, I almost forgot for a second they gave up on Shouta”

Nemuri shot him a sharp look, “You idiot, there are a lot of people here. Why wasn’t Emi included?”

Hizashi smiled at a reporter throwing a peace sign, “Some jurisdictional issue, I envy her so much, when can we get out of here? I want to go see Sho”

“Zashi, I want to see him too but you have been there since the raid, they’ll contact us if no when he wakes up”

“Yamada, Kayama we need to go, there’s a situation” Kan called out to the duo, who both shared a look, then followed the blood hero out.

At the hospital

“NOO, I won’t let you do this…….Get AWAY FROM ME, I’ll protect, I’ll protect them, I will”

Shouta Aizawa opened his eyes slowly and was met with white walls, white ceiling, white bed, terror seized him and he immediately began to free himself from all the needles they had injected him with, he can’t lose, he can’t give up, he needs to get out.

He pushed back the hands that were trying to restrain him, he won’t be used again, his quirk will not harm those he loves. “Stay away!!”. Free, he needs to be free.

“Sho? Sho its me, calm down”

Zashi? Did he hear Zashi’s voice? No no it can’t be him, another trick, another trick, get away from here.

“You are safe, listen to me” Hizashi forced his friend’s vulnerable face upwards, “I got you, nobody’s hurting you”

Aizawa began breathing evenly, “Really you? Zashi?”

“Yes yes its me Sho, I am here.”

Suddenly it came to him, Adrik, Haruki, Kan, Estella, pain.

“Where is Haru?” His eyes drooped and exhaustion took over as he fell back on the bed.

The number one hero was going through the answers he had mentally prepared he was going to give to the Hero council. With his stern image and public efforts to fill in the shoes of the symbol of peace, it shouldn’t be tough, but his mind kept straying to a few days ago, to his son’s eyes, which he had only seen filled with contempt towards him, soft and pleading.

> _“Dad?”_
> 
> _“Speak up fast Shoto! I don’t have time to hear your blabberings” He looked at his son and paused for a moment, his voice gentler , “Anything troubling you?”_
> 
> _“Can’t you help Aizawa-sensei?” Right, Endeavour thought, just 2 days ago, that horrific live video came out. He had wondered what the council would do, he felt pity for the man but it hadn’t occupied his thoughts after that._
> 
> _“This is a serious matter, we can’t act on our authority, there’s nothing I can do right now, plus you should know—”_
> 
> _“When has that ever stopped you?” Shoto’s fists were clenched and he looked up at his father with fury and hope. “You have always done what fulfills your goals! Didn’t you want to be the number 1 hero?? For once in your life, think like an actual hero old man!”_
> 
> _Endeavour looked at his son, he was shaking, he knew that Shoto respected Aizawa but he did not expect this, it hit him not for the first time how distant he was with his son, and for him to approach for help like this._
> 
> _“I’ll see what I can do. He will be back safe, I’ll make sure of it”_

Exiting the hall, Endeavour noticed Principal Nezu giving him weird looks, he had experience ignoring such looks, as if they had just discovered that he wasn’t a machine. He couldn’t help but smile thinking how much his son had grown, he now realized how much affect Aizawa had on these kids. He had tried to mold Shoto to his best self all his life, now he sought his approval. Turns out all you had to do was look malnourished and on drugs. He should check on Hawks, after all it was his echolocation that revealed what those UA teachers were planning. It was stupid to begin with, but the fact that they didn’t even plan how to deal with a warp quirk was laughable. But he had promised Shoto, so he had no choice but to follow their van at a safe distance. Meeting with them would have involved conversation he would rather die than have. Hawk’s feathers were pretty fast anyways. Before he knew it, there was a smile on his face, he chuckled, would you look at that!

Aizawa Shouta opened his eyes slowly and was met with a horrible, inaccurate portrait of himself surrounded by equally badly drawn cats. He blinked his eyes, his mind was still foggy but their was an unmistaken strong smell of lavender in the room. He opened his eyes properly and realized there wasn’t a drawing hung there, there were several. The whole wall was decorated with various cards and pictures, most said get well soon, some painted him in the class, one was him on a tree looking like a yellow caterpillar, the joke aside, it was painted beautifully with vibrant colours, signed at the bottom, in very small letters was B.K. He guessed the flowers were from other heroes. His room was filled with all types of colours, smells and things. He felt the tension in his chest slowly dissipitating.

“Hey there, how you feeling?”

“Did 1-A do this, Zashi?”

“Oh you would be so proud of them, Shouta. We were very on guard, considering how they have always done something irrational but not one of them, not even Midoriya or Bakugo did anything. Nobody even fought. They took their classes in silence, did what was told, nothing more. When Kan asked them, Midoriya said that they believed in you and that you would want them to stay safe, so they were gonna do that. Lida overheard the noise yesterday and they all came the next day to change the room.”

“I told Momo, she was going overboard with lavender but she just panicked and sprinkled more” Nemuri smiled.

“How much is the damage?”

Hizashi and Nemuri looked at each other, unsure, then Hizashi said, “There was a lot of internal bruisings which will take their time to heal, a minor burn on your left leg that was treated. Your hands Shouta, the skin had been cut so many times that the scars would not go and they will remain sensitive to the surroundings, you would probably have to wear special covering all the time.”

“What about my eyes?”  
“The extreme strain and violation will cause them to tire early and you are to avoid screens, but they should get better over time”

“Why can’t I use my quirk then?”

“What do you mean Sho? Your quirk is absolutely fine”

“I can’t use it, every time I try, something blocks it, I can’t”

“Haruki did mention that. I am sure it’ll be alright”

“Haruki? How is he? Where is he?”  
“He’s fine, Tsukauchi is looking for a foster home for him. His parents were a part of Yakuza, they wanted to use the boy’s quirk for their own means, when the mom protested, they killed her. Dad became a drunk, absent, only reason he is still a member is because Haruki began to do whatever they asked him to. Kurogiri chose a damaged kid to be your weakness, credits for accuracy.

“He’s not damaged, Haruki is not damaged. I would like to see him someday”

(1 month later)

Aizawa stared at the mirror in the hope that if he stares long enough, it will swallow him. He has been home for a month now and he still couldn’t use his quirk. His life as an underground hero was over anyways but without his quirk, he felt incomplete. He remembered how he flinched when Nemuri took out a knife to cut a fruit, try as he may, sharp objects still made his skin crawl. He thought he would be over it by now but he could still see himself back in the lab, with Estella whenever he closed his eyes. He punched the mirror in frustration, only to grunt in pain, his hands were unable to bear sudden activity.

“Aizawa-kun, how are you feeling?”

“Perfectly fine, All might, what brings you here?”

“Come out with me, it’s a good day”

Aizawa had no intention of leaving his room but something in All Might’s voice told him that he didn’t have an option.

“You know Aizawa-kun, when I lost my quirk, I told myself the same thing the first few days, that I am still me, that I’ll be okay”

“I appreciate what you are trying to do here, I really do but I don’t need this, I am okay”

“ You are still so young, we may be co-workers but I am much older than you, I can see that you are struggling with your identity. It is idealistic to think that our worth as heroes and as normal citizens is different but its not. For a hero, its impossible to be anything else but you weren’t just a hero, were you? You are a teacher, a mentor. 30 young minds look to you for guidance. It is not a light burden”

“How do you deal with it?”

“You are not the same person you were before, Aizawa. Trauma changes a person, if you keep trying to deny it and force yourself to be how you were before, you’ll just be lying to yourself.

Take it slow, you have been a through a lot. You should know that no matter how much it takes for you to find your path again, you will never be alone ”

“You really are a symbol you know” All Might chuckled.

For the first time since he came home, Aizawa looked at his hands, he looked at the scars that covered his hands. Me, he thought, they are a part of me now. He closed his eyes, it was a long day. His mind went back to the lab but this time he didn’t drown it with coffee. He went to the room around the corner and waited for a certain loud hero to open.

“My room actually has—“.

“Stay here for tonight, Sho, I am sure Nemuri is sneaking bugs in here somehow”

Aizawa smiled, “If you insist”

“I do”

This time when Aizawa closed his eyes, he thought about the morning that awaited him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had a lot of fun writing this story. I can't thank you enough for all the kudos and comments.  
> If you have any prompt requests, my tumblr blog is https://www.tumblr.com/blog/1blackstar2


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